Thriller set in Helsinki – The Witch Hunter by Max Seeck

Submitted: 22nd September 2020

Hell in Helsinki with Max Seeck

I can’t enough of this Finnish fiction! What if there was a serial killer copying the fictional murders of a best selling book? What if the wife of that very writer was the first victim? There are three books in the fictional series which seem to have inspired this crazed killer….so more murders will follow…

Add to that an insight into the world of the occult, witches and belief systems of the past AND a cold and wintery Helsinki landscape and you have all of the ingredients for a ice cold killer thriller with bite!

Seeck and yee shall find…a very fine addition to the Nordic/Scandi landscape…

BookTrail Travel to locations in The Witchhunter

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I’m a huge fans of all things Nordic and Scandi and this thriller takes me over to Helsinki for some occult, witchery, gory goings on. A great female protagonist and a gruesome murder mystery involving plots from books! All set against the ice-cold streets of Helsinki. It appealed to me from the off and I featured it in a little Finnish round up here a few days ago.

I had to feature a full review of this however as it’s so compelling. Detective Jessica Niemi is a woman trying to do her job in a man’s world. She’s assigned the case of a famous writer whose wife has just been horrifically murdered and staged in some sort of occult ritual. A scene very similar to one described by her husband in one of his novels! That sets the scene for some very creepy goings on and we follow the police as they find one dark clue after another. Clues and tips that made me go ‘urgh’ out loud on more than one occasion. Don’t eat immediately before or during this novel!

BookTrail Travel to locations in The Witchhunter

The murders keep coming and the police resort to looking closer at the books to see where they might have to head to next. Innocent events, turns of phrase become very significant later on and you realise later on in the book what you dismissed at the time. Exciting when you are literally beside the police at every stage of the investigation! A large cast of characters brings just enough confusion and doubt so you never really realise who or what might be behind the murders (or at least I didn’t).

The writing is quick and snappy, the foreshadowing like a Tsunami of terror and then one twist after another to a fitting end. I didn’t guess the ending or denouement at all. So many people to suspect and a complex thread of potential motives too! There’s just enough about the history of witches and gruesome rituals to shock rather than really make you unable to sleep at night.

Helsinki features well – and particularly the suburb of Kulosaari which is in fact a very nice island to the east of the city. You might not want to live there after reading this however haha. The city is explored according to where the next occult ritual has been staged – so quite a unique way to BookTrail that’s for sure!

Feel the Finnish Fear and read it anyway. We need more Nordic/Scandi Noir and this is a great way to get it.